Christmas in the Caribbean

My parents flew to Belize from Arizona to spend Christmas with us. We were all very excited to have them here (especially the boys) and their arrival coincided with the Island Academy Christmas Pageant.

The boys were psyched to ride our rented golf cart to school with their Grandparents!

Post-school, pre-pageant beach time

Since this is our first year in San Pedro, we had no idea the Christmas Pageant is such a big deal. It seemed like half the town was there! The school had set up an enormous tent to cover the stage, the audience, and the BAR. Yes, there was a  bar serving beer (and I think maybe even wine and mixed drinks) adjacent to the seating area. How many school functions have you attended in the US with a temporary bar set up on school grounds??

The play was really well done and it was obvious the teachers and students worked hard preparing the props and rehearsing the material. It was a musical about the best way to present Christmas as a musical, and the kids performed several numbers reflecting the directorial and musical styles of several genres--film noir, action, old-timey silent films, Spaghetti Westerns, etc. Lochlan's class sand Mele Kalikimaka (complete with Hawaiian dance moves), Liam got to play The Villain in one of the musical numbers, and the boys' friend Aiden did a fantastic job as Sergio Spumoni, the spaghetti western director. 

We took a ton of pictures and videos, but it turns out one of the moms at Island Academy is a professional photographer, and her pictures are amazing. So the images below are hers (used with permission).

Lochlan's class performing

Liam's class, about to perform "Get Along Little Reindeer"

Lochlan's class post-pageant

Liam's class post-pageant

Fortunately the rain held off until the very end of the performance. We had promised the boys D & E's ice cream afterwards, and as it happens, Eileen herself was at the pageant! We asked if she was going to be open, and she said "yep, just as soon as I get back to the shop!" So we gave her a ride and were ensured access to the best ice cream on the island.

After the pageant, we headed to San Ignacio for a few days (which will be covered in a subsequent post), but I thought it would make more narrative sense to treat the pageant and Christmas Day in a single post. Which leads me to Christmas decorations. 

Living on a tropical island is truly wonderful but it presents certain difficulties when it comes to satisfying the holiday expectations of young people. For example, Christmas trees do not exist in this country. Sure, there are tropical pine trees up in Mountain Pine Ridge, but to my knowledge, no enterprising Belizean has yet taken on the challenge of harvesting, distributing, and selling said trees to the population (nevermind raising live trees to sell for decoration followed by planting after the holidays as we normally do in Seattle!). Artificial trees are available, but they are expensive, tough to store, and impractical to take along when we move back home in six months. So we improvised.

Inspired by an art project at school based on the work of Dr. Lala, we cut up soda cans into tiny squares, punched four holes in each piece, and then Amy spent HOURS and HOURS linking those suckers together. I think it turned out rather well, but it certainly is the most unorthodox Christmas tree we've ever had.

The Tree

The Tree with presents

Another complication was where to hang the stockings with care. Fireplaces are also not really common here, so we once again we improvised. I rigged up some nylon rope in a spiral around the central support pillar in the living room and Amy ran some LED lights alongside. We tied the stockings to the rope, and it turned out pretty well.

The final challenge was presents. We love how simple things are here in Belize, and the fact that there are no chain stores of any kind is pretty amazing. However, it does make it close to impossible to find things like Magic The Gathering playing cards, or build-it-yourself catapult kits. Receiving packages here (and conversely, sending them) is time consuming, expensive, and not always reliable. So--Mom and Dad to the rescue! The folks very graciously let us ship a bunch of stuff to their place in Arizona, and Amy's parents also dropped off some things for the boys, and my parents played Santa. We would not have had many Christmas presents without them! Although I'm sure the boys wouldn't have minded fewer presents, just having their grandparents here really made it feel like Christmas, even though everything about it was very different than what they're used to. 

Sand, sails, and Santa hats

The boys decorated a gingerbread house from Grandma and Grandpa Kaplan

PRESENTS FROM SANTA!!!

Dad with his jippy-jappa basket

We gave Mom some metal geckos to decorate their new house

I got a cool shirt with a map of the island on it

The boys got Amy a dolphin made by a local carver

Dad playing Forbidden Island with the boys

Since we won't be able to take large toys back with us, most of the gifts were on the small side, but we had a wonderful morning opening them and trying out some of the numerous games each of us received.

We had a Skype session with my brother and his family in Arizona, and another Skype session with Amy's parents and sister in Kentucky. We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the beach, then came home and prepared a delicious feast of all our favorite traditional dishes--mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, etc--and we introduced a new favorite, fried breadfruit!

It was a wonderful, relaxing, fun-filled Christmas Day, and it was such a joy to spend it with my parents. The only thing that could have made it better is if the rest of our families could have been with us.